


Collecting Invisible Things

by armouredescort



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Ability Explanation, Brother-Sister Relationships, Family Fluff, Gen, Invisibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6308074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armouredescort/pseuds/armouredescort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Evie is not there and then she is. Jacob has a whine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collecting Invisible Things

It had been quite the shock when Evie had literally popped out of nowhere. Jacob had definitely checked her room on the train to see if she was there, and her bed had definitely been empty. Yet there she was, and there she had been for some time as her hair had lost its curl from her braid.

Perhaps he hadn't looked hard enough. One does not simply vanish. Well, an Assassin could, but there was nowhere she could have hidden.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked.

"I was looking for you," said Jacob. "I found one of those music boxes."

He'd found three of them, actually. They were keeping a tally of who'd found more (seven for him, including the new three), but Evie was in front with a good sixteen, and Jacob was fairly certain there were only thirty. Truthfully, Jacob was just as curious as Evie as to what was in the metal vault, but he had a feeling it was going to reap more of a reward for her in the end.

Evie smiled (how long had it been since she had last smiled at him?) and reached under her bed for two boxes. One was full of music discs she hadn't yet put into the vault's locks, and the other was long and flat, just the right size for storing newspapers. The discs went into the box with their peers, and the other was held out to Jacob.

"What's this? A gift? For me?" he asked. "From my dear big sister?"

"Oh, if you don't want it, I'll pass it on," said Evie.

She slowly started to pull away, and smirked when Jacob grabbed it.

Inside were newspaper and street pictures, peeled carefully from their walls. Some of them were more political, and others illustrations of everyday life. A few satires, but nothing in colour. Some had nicked corners, a spot of blood, or had been crumpled along the sides. Not perfect, but a far sight better than some of his first attempts to collect the illustrations.

He sat next to her, ignoring her complaints of dirt on her bed.

"Thank you," he murmured, flicking through the pages.

"It's quite alright. I tried not to fold them," said Evie. She paused, and then came, "Thank you for collecting the music boxes."

"Anything for my sister," Jacob said.

"Except keeping the buses running smoothly."

"Except that."

Evie sighed and put her head on Jacob's shoulder. With a gentle huff of breath, she relaxed.

And vanished again.

Logically, Jacob could feel her resting against him – could hear her – but he couldn't see her. Not clearly. There was a faint warping of light around where she should be, but it was as if she had turned to glass. Naturally he put his hand out and planted it right over her face.

Whatever it was that was making Evie invisible was interrupted as Evie made a muffled noise and flung a hand out to smack him in the belly. Jacob let go.

"Urgh, did you even clean your hands before coming in here? I have to wash my face again!" Evie howled.

She shoved his shoulder. They rarely got into fisticuffs these days, but a brawl was never out of the question when they were younger.

"Oh no, no, no. You can't use that when you turn literally invisible in front of your brother! How did you do that?" demanded Jacob.

"Do what?"

"Turn invisible!"

"Training. I've always been able to. Just couldn't figure out how," said Evie.

Jacob gasped dramatically and poked her in the side, "You cheated in hide and seek."

"I did not."

"You so did."

"Get out."

"No, I want to turn invisible too," whined Jacob.

"You're a first rate sloop against sixth rates in a fight," said Evie.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're burly and can take a cannonball to the gut."

Jacob huffed.

"And it's a good thing you are – you're not still enough to focus on turning invisible," said Evie.

"Fine. But show me again. Properly," said Jacob.

Evie rolled her eyes and took up a place in the middle of the carriage. She swayed with the movement and then melted away. It wasn't true invisibility. She was still there. Jacob could see her. Yet the light slipped around her. And it was true, he wasn't nearly still enough to go into whatever weird ability Evie had.

"You did have it at one point," said Evie, standing up.

Colour bled back into her and she glimmered for a moment. Then she was back and solid and Jacob felt a sense of tension in his shoulders lifting. It had been eerie. Eerie Evie.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better," said Jacob.

"No, I remember father was furious about something or other, and we hid together. Under a bed. Obvious place, really, but we didn't have anything better. He bent down and looked straight at us, but it was as if he was looking through us," said Evie. "Then he walked off and stormed through the house."

Jacob didn't remember that. There had been many times that their father had been angry with them. Or with Jacob, specifically. Evie hadn't been much of a rule breaker.

"You managed it a few times, but you're not the quiet type," Evie continued.

"So I could, in theory, train myself invisible."

Evie sighed.

"Get out, man-o-war. I have to wash and sleep. Take some soap to your hands," she said.

Jacob picked up his box of illustrations.

"Of course, you need your beauty sleep to impress Mr Green!"

A pillow thumped Jacob on the back as he scampered out.

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to call Jacob a tank, but they didn't really have the terminology, so I figured throwing some sailing terms in would suffice. (A first rate sloop is a very big sailing ship, a sixth would never want to go up against a first; they were also called man-o-wars).


End file.
